Fugitive In Child-porn Case Found In Osceola

For more than six years, Jeremiah A. Molloy worked as an admissions counselor at Florida Metropolitan University and lived in an apartment on East Vine Street in Kissimmee with a roommate.

Thursday morning his true identity came to light. He is, authorities say, Timothy Allen Groves, 55, one of the U.S. Customs Service's most wanted fugitives.

Groves has been wanted on international child-pornography-trafficking charges for more than eight years. The former Kansas resident was featured on America's Most Wanted, but he eluded authorities until the case began to come together a few weeks ago.

"He was a predator," said Jim Lewis, a Customs agent in Kansas City, Mo., who investigated the case. "We are very glad to have him in custody."

A federal grand jury indicted Groves on two counts of distribution of child pornography and with possession of child pornography in Lenexa, Kan., in 1994.

The indictment alleges that Groves sent pornographic photographs of children to an address in Manchester, England, and received a videotape containing child pornography in the mail in 1993 and 1994.

Groves was supposed to surrender to authorities, but he never showed up, according to Michael J. Cestare Sr., the supervising Customs agent in Orlando.

"He just fell off the face of the earth," Cestare said. After eight years of fruitless searching, the big break in the case came through routine police work.

Customs agents in Missouri and Kansas rechecking old leads found a friend of Groves' living in Kissimmee. Further checks revealed that Groves was living with the man under the assumed name.

Officials at Groves' employer, Florida Metropolitan University, referred questions about Groves to Corinthian Colleges, the California company that runs the for-profit school. Dennis Beal, a vice president at the company's headquarters in Santa Ana, Calif., said the school officials cooperated with authorities as soon as they were informed that the man they knew as Jim Molloy was under investigation. Beal said Molloy had worked for the company since 1996.

Groves will be transported back to Kansas City next week to face the federal charges against him. Groves also faces state child sexual abuse charges in Johnson County, Kan., stemming from a 1995 incident involving several children, Missouri customs officials said.